Thursday, November 15, 2012

One Common Goal!

There is a trick to becoming a high-level team. The trick is that
all the members of the team are on the same page. In sports, we have seen how
defense, offense, slow-paced, up-tempo, and all kinds of systems have had
success. The one thing they have in common, though, is that all the members
have “bought into" whatever system is being used. Although
"bought in" is a phrase that is thrown around all the time in sports
and business, it cannot be overvalued.

People by nature are very egocentric. We often feel like everyone is
crazy but us or that we are more important than the people around us.
Case-in-point: the jerks who park in two parking spots because clearly their
vehicles are more important than everyone else’s! The problem is that this
egocentric attitude is death to a team. The whole essence of any team, in
business or sports or in our personal lives, is that the entire team is driving
towards the same goal. They are hell-bent on achieving something and they all
have "bought into" the same plan on how to get there. As cliché as it
sounds, it's true: the whole is bigger and better than the sum of its
parts!

It is not important that somebody in the group might have some
revolutionary idea because, if it leads to a small faction of the team veering
off and adhering to this particular tangent without the rest of the group, then
the whole team breaks down. It does not matter that this idea or system may be
“better” than the one that is currently being implemented. What matters is that
you have a group of people acting together to get the job at hand done. This
does not imply that implementing a new system may not improve the overall
success. There have been countless innovations that have helped teams and
businesses and, hopefully, individuals on the team with good ideas are listened
to, but, unless the plan is implemented from the top down and rolled out to the
group as a unit, the independent operators on the team following their own
ideas will have a negative impact on the success of the team as a whole.

If you are a part of a team and you feel that the system being
implemented is not the “right” one and you can't introduce your ideas without
fracturing the team, then perhaps you should remove yourself from that
organization. Perhaps you actually are smarter or better than the people
running the team or company. If you feel that is the case, then you are being a
disservice to yourself and to the team to stay. Either get on board,
"buy in," or jump ship, those are the options. Perhaps you can
assemble your own group whose members will then "buy into" your ideas
and you can start your own team.

There are indeed, however, some people who are simply not team
players. These people will struggle in almost every aspect of being on a team.
It may be unfortunate because team success is such a rewarding shared
experience and almost everyone benefits from the experience. There is a place
for non-team folks like this and we see evidence of their contributions all
around us, but the background of succeeding as a team can be a highlight to
anyone's life. And a "team" can be found in some many aspects
of our lives: a family, a sports group, a company, a school, a group dedicated
to a cause, or any of numerous other collections of people. The one thing they
all have in common is that they have a goal, they all want to get to it, and
they want to get to it together. Look at the various "teams" that you
are on. Are all the members clear about the team's goals? Is everyone convinced
of the effectiveness of the team's plans? Does everyone feel more connected,
more useful, and more invigorated by being part of the team? If your teams do
not resemble this, perhaps a change needs to happen. That change may be you.